A Natural Part of Their Conversation

Vermin and Margaret Jewell carried a little bit of West Virginia everywhere they lived.  Like many Mountaineers, they left their beloved state to find work in other areas of the country.  For Dad and Mother, it was the Buffalo, New York area and years of work in the Chevrolet plant in Tonawanda.

                We lived in a variety of places, since it is not always easy to find a house to rent with 5 children.  But whatever condition the property was in, they always made it a warm, loving home.  One thing always held true, though, we rarely missed a church service.  It was just an essential part of life for these Jewells.

                Years later, after college and marriage, I became the pastor of Jefferson Baptist Church in Jefferson, South Carolina.  My wife, Patsy, became close friends with a deacon’s wife and in conversation one day said, “Why don’t you all just go to New York with us on our vacation as we visit the Jewells?”  To her surprise, she said yes.

                Mother and Dad opened their home with great West Virginia hospitality, as usual, and we had a wonderful time showing the Reese’s Niagara Falls and all the other sites in Western New York.

                After returning home to South Carolina, Sabren and Carroll Reese and their 2 children had great memories of our trip.  Deacon Carroll pointed out something that impressed him about my Mother and Dad.  It was more than the hospitality and Mother’s good “Southern” cooking, though they gave plenty of praise for that.  Carroll said, “When we sat on the porch each evening, before the conversation went very far, they were talking about the Lord.  It was just as natural as talking about the weather or what we had seen that day.  I have never seen anything quite like that.”

                I had never noticed before, because it had been, and always would be, that way for Vermin and Margaret.  Their faith was not just for Sunday.  I thank God that I was brought up in that environment.  Though they didn’t actually trust in Jesus until they were both 20 (their birthdays were just 8 days apart), their determination to walk with God never wavered until I preached their funerals and we laid them to rest just 3 months apart in 2005.